


Morning Sky

by noumenon



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:26:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4799453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noumenon/pseuds/noumenon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were a lot of things that Tucker didn't like about Wash's style of leadership. There was one thing that he did enjoy though, and that was his stance on armor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning Sky

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this idea for way too long, and I'm finally finished with it. Please enjoy!

“Tucker, what are you doing?” Washington’s voice questioned as Tucker walked sleepily in his armor into the makeshift kitchen.

“I’m practicing my lines for Broadway.” Tucker said dryly. “I’m getting breakfast, you ass. What the hell else would I be doing?” He noticed Washington was making himself coffee and decided he needed to steal it once it was done and cooled down enough to drink.

Washington raised an eyebrow and the cogs started turning in Tucker’s still sleep-deprived brain. “Caboose won’t be awake for at least another hour. You don’t have to worry about anything exploding.” The words fell out of his mouth the same way a sigh would, but there was a playful tint in his eyes. It was weird, seeing him like that, but Tucker couldn’t quite put his finger on why.

And there it was, it clicked. Washington wasn’t wearing his armor. He’d seen him without it before, like when he was yelling at him to wake up and sometimes at night when Wash would walked around the base instead of sleeping, but he’d never gotten a good look at him. 

“Wait, why aren’t you wearing your armor?” Now that he was actually more awake he took note of the too big and probably belonging to Caboose blue team shirt that he assumes Washington stole from the washing machine and the baggy freelancer sweats. He looked like a civilian. An adorable civilian. Or maybe hot? Tucker couldn’t quite decide.

“Why are you wearing yours, private? You complain so much about literally everything I thought you’d put it off until the last minute.” Washington grabbed a second mug and filled it with coffee for Tucker. Looks like he won’t have to steal Washington’s after all. Though he probably still will.

“I just, well, it’s protocol, isn’t it? Captain Flowers always made us put on our armor right after waking up before leaving our rooms.” Tucker took off his helmet and put it down on the table, still sleepy and confused and not entirely sure what Washington was talking about.

“No, it’s not protocol. Why would this ‘Flowers’….” Washington trailed off before covering his face with his hand. “Wait, what was his full name? Butch Flowers?”

“Uh, yeah. I think so. Why, do you know him?” Tucker tilted his head. “Oh fuck, he didn’t have an armor fetish or something, did he? Because that cheery fucker was creepy enough as it was.”

“No! Well, I don’t know. It’s not like I went around asking the other freelancers what their kinks were-” Washington started, before getting loudly interrupted by Tucker yelling “Wait wait wait, Flowers was a freelancer?”

“Agent Florida, yes. He disappeared, the director must have sent him to watch over Church after Tex found him the first time. Florida probably made you all wear your armor all the time so you wouldn’t question why Church couldn’t take his off.” He mused.

“That…makes sense. Fuck. Goddammit, you mean I’ve been wearing this stupid thing on my breaks for years for nothing? That is some grade A bullshit right there. Is there anywhere I can go to file a complaint against dead asshole captains?” Tucker complained as he started to take off his armor.

“Now what are you doing?”

“I’m not wearing this stupid if I don’t have to! I fucking miss not being a goddamn metal man.” He only had shorts on and a tank top, and the room was sort of chilly, especially for someone not used to having bare skin actually touching the air, but Tucker couldn’t even find it in himself to care anymore. “Oh my fucking god, Washington. You are officially my favorite captain now. Seriously, the absolute best.”

“Well try to remember that when you’re running laps later.”

“I take it back. You suck and I hate you.” 

“You have one hour before you need to be back in your armor.”

“Fuck that! I’m making up for lost time.” Tucker left the kitchen area with his middle finger pointed up for Wash and made his way outside. It was chilly in the morning here, giving him goosebumps as the cold hit his bare skin. Tucker really didn’t care though, it had been a long time since he’s felt that.

He kept walking until he found himself a spot with thick grass and an unobstructed view of the sky. Tucker laid down and spread out his limbs, taking in the sensation as grass scratched his skin. The morning dew became frost in the crisp morning air and the cold stung, just a bit. Tucker loved it. It felt so amazing to feel something like this on his bare skin.

Above him, the sky was dark. It wasn’t as dark as the sky got on Earth at dawn, but it was dark enough for some stars to be visible.

Tucker soaked in the experience with great pleasure. It was nice, to just be there for a little bit. His uncharacteristically calm state was soon interrupted by the blue team leader. 

Aren’t you cold?” Washington asked, putting the cup of coffee that Tucker forgot to steal next to him. 

“It’s a kind of nice cold.” Tucker said, still staring straight up at the sky. Wash followed his gaze up briefly then turned back down to his soldier.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Just chillin’.” Tucker said, sitting up so he could take hold of his crappy coffee and take a huge gulp. It didn’t cool down too much in the time Tucker had left it. The dark liquid was still warm and pooled in Tucker’s stomach, providing him with some much needed warmth.

“Do you like the stars?” Wash asked him. He must have noticed the way Tucker was looking at the sky. That, or maybe he was just trying to make small talk. Tucker liked the thought of the first one.

“Yeah. They’re nice.” Tucker said, a bit of sadness was noticeable in his voice. “They’re different, though.”

“Different?” Wash looked at Tucker quizzically. “What do you mean? They’re stars.”

Tucker turned and gaped at Wash. “What? No dude. They’re not just stars, they have names and make constellations and those have names too. It’s pretty cool, actually. But these stars are all wrong. None of the constellations from Earth are here. They’re all… different.”

“I uh, I had no idea you were so passionate about stars.” Wash said, unsure of what exactly he should say after all that. 

“I’m not passionate about stars, that’s so fucking nerdy.” Tucker frowned at Wash. When Washington met his gaze, Tucker quickly turned his eyes back to the sky. “This is gay. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Wash looked over Tucker’s now slumped form. He sighed, then laid on his back and stared up at the stars, trying to understand what the other soldier was seeing. Tucker stayed sitting.

A few moments passed and neither of them said anything. Tucker shifted his wait to his feet and made to stand up, but stopped when Wash started talking.

“I never saw the stars until I joined the military.” He said. “I grew up on a colony planet, and terraforming didn’t go as well as it did on other planets. There were constant windstorms and the sky was brown with dirt and dust.”

“So your planet sucked, big deal.” Tucker brushed him off.

“When the recruitment ship left the atmosphere, I saw the sky the first time. I saw stars for the first time.”

Tucker sat back down and looked at him. “Is there a reason you’re telling me this?”

“No, there’s,” Wash pursed his lips. “Tucker.” His voice came out much softer now. “I think that we should be able to talk to each other.”

Tucker took a long drink from his mug of coffee before responding. “Why?”

“Forget it.” Wash said. He pulled himself up into a sitting position slowly and started to stand up. Tucker stopped him with a quick touch to the arm. He pulled his hand back so quickly that Wash almost thought it never even happened. He settle back down and looked at Tucker, who was staring intently at the grass.

Morning wind rustled the grass and made the pair shiver. For a few seconds, only the wind and the distant sound of the faulty engine by red base filled the silence.

“My mom got me a set of those glow-in-the-dark stars for my ceiling when I was seven.” Tucker began to speak, still not looking at Wash. “It was a huge set, I thought it was so cool. I grew up in a city and I could never see the stars at night. Me and my mom spent my birthday putting them up so they matched the night sky.” A smile spread on his face as he thought of those happier days. “Light pollution in the city makes it hard to see the real deal, but I could always see these fuckers. Kept ‘em up for 10 years. Then I,” He swallowed. “I tore them down when I was seventeen. This gu-girl from school came over. We were totally gonna bang. She saw those stars at laughed at me.”

“Tucker.” Wash said softly.

“And I kicked her out. I don’t wanna fuck douchebag guys who just see me as easy, anyways.”

“Tucker.” Wash said again, more forcefully this time.

“What?” Tucker finally turned to look at Wash. “You wanted me to share, didn’t you?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Wash told him. “And you know I don’t care if you like guys, right? You don’t need to change up the pronouns. Or at the very least, if you’re going to do that, be more thorough.” His voice was teasing and he nudged Tucker as he said it.

“What? No, dude, I’m completely straight!” Tucker insisted weakly. He stopped when he saw Wash raise an eyebrow at him. “Ugh.” He continued, “I’m bi, okay? I guess today is sharing day.”

“You don’t need to hide that.” Wash told him.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? Now you’re always going to think I’m hitting on you or something.”

“I wouldn’t really mind if you hit on me.”

“Oh, well.” Tucker blushed, just a bit. “Well my mom would be fucking pissed if I ever hit on a guy.” Silence settled awkwardly over them. Tucker flopped back down and stared at the sky again.

“Do you know the names of any the stars?” Wash said, eager to change the subject.

“No.” Tucker admitted. “I only know them by position in the sky on Earth. These,” He waved his hand across the sky, “are a fucking mystery.”

“Do you want to name a few?” Wash asked, laying down next to Tucker. 

Tucker rolled his head to the side and smiled just a bit. His hand was still in the air but he let his wrist go limp. “You’re such a nerd. I can’t believe you just suggested that.”

“Oh shut up.” Wash took Tucker’s hand and pointed it towards the brightest star he could see. “Give that one a name.”

Tucker started laughing and pulled his hand away. “That’s not a star, dude. It’s a planet.”

Wash looked between the dot and the sky and Tucker. “How can you tell?”

“It’s way too big, bow chicka bow wow, plus the light isn’t the same as a star.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s a little bit duller, and stars kinda twinkle because of the way the light bends over the millions of light-years it traveled to get here. The planet is way closer, so it doesn’t do that.”

“You know all this, and I’m the nerd.” Wash said with a grin.

“Hell yeah you’re a nerd!” Tucker pushed Wash a bit. 

“And you’re going to run 10 laps around the canyon.”

“Oh fuck you.”

“You can do them on your own, or you can do 5 laps if you’re able to keep up with me.”

“What? That’s not even possible! You’re way too fucking fast.”

“Come on, Tucker.” Wash held out his hand to help Tucker up to his feet. He took it, and their hands lingered for a just a second too long before parting. “So are you going to run with me or on your own?”

“I think,” Tucker stared at Wash’s face, his eyes flickering between his blue eyes and his lips, “I’m going to run from you.”

“That wasn’t one of the options.” Wash crinkled his eyebrows together and stared at the shorter soldier. “And I’m not really sure why you’d want to do that.”

Tucker looked to the side momentarily and then reached out to tug on Wash’s shirt. He stumbled forward and Tucker took the opportunity of Wash’s confusion to press a quick kiss against his lips. 

“I’m going to run now. Bye, Wash.” He flashed him a grin and sprinted towards the base before Wash could even process what happened.

“Tucker!” He yelled after a few seconds. “Get back here!”

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked the story, tell me! I feed off of comments.


End file.
